Email | Personal Website
Education
PhD, Psychology, University of Michigan
MS, Psychology, University of Michigan
MA, Child Language, University of Kansas
BA, Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Wellesley College
Background
Margaret is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Decision Research. Prior to the University of Chicago, she was a doctoral student at the University of Michigan in developmental psychology working primarily with Susan Gelman.
Research Interests
Margaret is interested in promoting greater wellbeing across the lifespan. As a part of this, she currently examines the strategies we use to understand the contents of others’ minds, and whether the efficacy of different strategies changes as we age. In a related line of work, she also examines why we may fail to engage in prosocial behaviors, especially in cases where these acts bring about greater wellbeing. Across studies, she takes a developmental approach with the goal of understanding the ontogeny of decision making.
Selected Publications & Presentations
Gelman, S. A., & Echelbarger, M. (in press). Children, object value, and persuasion, Journal of Consumer Psychology.
Echelbarger, M., Gelman, S. A., & Kalish, C. W. (2018). Getting what you pay for: Children’s use of market norms to regulate exchanges. Child Development.
Echelbarger, M., Gelman, S. A., & Kalish, C. W. (2018). How does “emporiophobia” develop? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41, e168.
Smith1, Craig E., Echelbarger1, M., Gelman, S. A., Rick, S. I. (2018). Spendthrifts and tightwads in childhood: Feelings about spending predict financial behavior in children. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 31, 446-460. (1 denotes equal authorship)
Echelbarger, M., & Gelman, S. A. (2017). The value of variety and scarcity across development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 156, 43-61.